How To Woodturn A Salt And Pepper Mill
Where practicality meets style. A bespoke designed salt and pepper mill will most certainly take centre stage at the dinner table, whether it’s for grand Sunday lunches or weeknight fish and chips!
What you'll need
Turning Your Pepper Mill
Step 1
Select an appropriate woodturning blank to the size of mechanism, we used 250mm oak blank for the 195mm CrushGrind mechanism.
Step 2
Cut to size the top and bottom sections, ours was 170mm length for the main body and 80mm for the top section.
Step 3
Mark the centre on one end of each of the blanks using a marking gauge.
Step 4
Attach the longest blank to the lathe; using a roughing gouge rough down into a cylinder. Repeat for the top section.
Step 5
Attach the main body of the pepper mill to a 4 jaw chuck and onto the lathe, then drill out the main body. We used the Woodcut boring system; in order to use the boring system, you will need to make a 1” hole through the base so the woodcut can bore down through. Repeat for the top section.
Alternatively
If you are not using the woodcut boring system you will need 3 different sized sawtooth bits to bore down through the base working your way down through the main body starting with largest first, 45mm, 38mm and 25mm. Repeat for the top section.
Step 6
Hold top section in the chuck, and drill a top hole with a 20mm sawtooth bit to a depth of 15mm.
Step 7
To drive the blanks turn a wooden tapered drive dog (as per the drawing). This drive is inserted into the blank to act as a friction drive, using the tailstock to support.
Step 8
Turn the main body of the pepper mill to your chosen design, here you can see the drive dog in action.
Step 9
Sand using abrasive grits, here we're using 100/150/240/400, in this order.
Step 10
Apply finishing oil.
Step 11
To drive the top blank, turn the second wooden drive dog (as per drawing). The friction fit has to be secure enough to support the blank when the tailstock is not engaged.
Step 12
Following this, use the tailstock to support and turn the top section of the pepper mill to your chosen design.
Step 13
Remove the tailstock to complete the turning of the top section, carefully removing the waste area before sanding to a finish.
Step 14
Sand, again we used grits 100/150/240/400, in this order.
Step 15
Apply finishing oil.
Pepper Mill Assembly:
Start by inserting the CrushGrind pepper mill mechanism into the pre-drilled holes. Using assembly dog's tap the mechanism into the bottom section of the mill. Take the top section of the mill and tap in using the drive plug. Finally, push the two parts together.